This figure is up from $182.5 billion in 2010, a rise of 22 per cent in just five years, according to a new report released recently by LIXIL Group Corporation.

The report, published in collaboration with WaterAid and Oxford Economics, which conducted economic modelling to develop up-to-date estimations of the global cost of poor sanitation, brings to light the high economic burden in low-income and lower-middle income countries.
More than half (55 per cent) of all costs of poor sanitation are a consequence of premature deaths, rising to 75 per cent in Africa.

A further quarter are due to treating related diseases, and other costs are related to lower productivity as a result of illnesses and time lost due to lack of access to a private toilet.

Regionally, in terms of total United States (U.S.) dollar value, the economic burden of poor sanitation is heaviest in Asia Pacific, which is accountable for a cost of $172.3 billion, over three quarters of the total amount.

Latin America and the Caribbean, and Africa account for approximately 10 per cent of the global cost each. On a national level, in terms of total cost, India suffers by far the most, with $106.7 billion wiped off Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2015, almost half of the total global losses, and 5.2 per cent of the nation’s GDP.

The research underlines the terrible toll poor sanitation is taking in Africa, where the costs stood at $19.3 billion in 2015, an increase of 24.5 per cent from $15.5 billion in 2010. These costs were equivalent to 0.9 per cent of GDP, higher than the global (ex-India) average.

In terms of cost as a share of GDP, the top 10 most impacted countries were concentrated in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

LIXIL Group President and CEO, KinyaSeto, said: “Poor sanitation represents not only a human tragedy but a huge economic burden on already hard-pressed countries.